The Block party is headed to Charlotte.

Michael Block qualified for the upcoming PGA Championship with a tie for third at the PGA Professional Championship, which awarded PGA Championship berths to the top 20 finishers across 72 holes. Block finished 11 strokes behind winner Tyler Collet, who plays out of John’s Island Club in Vero Beach, Florida, but nonetheless came away with a tee time at Quail Hollow Club, May 15-18. The PGA Professional Championship featured 312 golf professionals from 41 different PGA sections, vying for 20 spots at the season’s second major championship.

Two years ago, Block authored one of the more unlikely stories of modern major-championship times, finishing T15 at the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill in western New York. That week for Block, things seemingly got more magical by the day, culminating in a Sunday pairing with Rory McIlroy and a hole-in-one at the par-3 15th hole that sent the patrons into a frenzy. Block was in near-disbelief as his tee shot fell straight into the cup, and he parlayed that week into mainstream attention across the golf world – after two decades as a teaching pro who dominated the Southern California Section but remained relatively anonymous in the wider golf ecosystem. In the months after Oak Hill, Block signed sponsorship deals with TaylorMade, Cisco, Raising Cane’s and Michelob Ultra, to name a few. He hung out with F1 drivers and celebrity chef Jose Andres and became good friends with DJ Khaled. His star was rising, and he rode the wave.

That top-15 finish at Oak Hill qualified Block for the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla, where he missed the cut, leaving an uncertain fate for 2025. Without a prior exemption into this year’s PGA, Block needed a top-20 finish at the PGA Professional Championship to earn his seventh career PGA Championship start – and fourth consecutive appearance. Block, 48, carded rounds of 64-71-75-73 in at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida, to finish at 4-under total, comfortably inside the top 20. (Four players finished T20 at even-par, requiring a 4-for-1 playoff for the final spot.)

Block has made just one PGA TOUR start since last year’s PGA Championship, missing the cut at the 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge. The nine-time Southern California PGA Player of the Year plays out of Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, California, where he serves as head golf professional. The clubhouse scene was lively at Arroyo Trabuco during the final round of the 2023 PGA Championship, where Block got up-and-down for par from well below and left of the 18th green at Oak Hill to finish top-15 and qualify for the 2024 PGA Championship without needing a top-20 finish at the PGA Professional Championship.

This year, he had no such luxury – but he took matters into his own hands with a strong showing in South Florida.

These 20 players qualified for the 2025 PGA Championship via the PGA Professional Championship: Tyler Collet, Jesse Droemer, Brian Bergstol, Michael Block, Dylan Newman, Brandon Bingaman, Ryan Lenahan, Andre Chi, Eric Steger, John Somers, Justin Hicks, Rupe Taylor, Tom Johnson, Nic Ishee, Bob Sowards, Bobby Gates, Greg Koch, Timothy Wiseman, Larkin Gross, Michael Kartrude.